The “80/20 Rule” applies to just about anything you care to name in life. 80% of success is achieved by 20% of people; 80% of sales is generated by 20% of salespeople etc. etc. But when you break down that statistical truism it’s not as simplistic as the 80/20 rule would seem. Only 3% of people are actually super successful and as we become more sophisticated in the art of selling, the more difficult it’s becoming for salespeople to excel. The increasing complexities of the sales process begs the question … “Are we making the selling process too complex for our own good?”
While the premise of selling in itself is simple, sales is extremely difficult to be good at, that’s why in every team of 10, there exists only one, or at best 2 “sales superstars”. The reasons are a combination of:
1. Lack of commitment
2. Lack of knowledge and little willingness to learn
3. No passion
4. Poor commitment to service
There’s also an ever increasing expectation by salespeople that opportunities, knowledge and sales tools will fall like “manna from heaven” with little or no drive and determination to “make it happen”. Good things don’t come to he who waits … in sales as well as in life, opportunities and success are not manna from heaven, they’re created and those who are willing to “go the extra mile” are the recipients of the rewards which follow.
As a consequence, the 80/20 Rule is a diminishing statistic. Let me give you a couple of examples:
Ø Statistically, 90% of new business is generated by only 10% of salespeople and generally it’s the top sales performers who secure those new accounts.
Ø In many industries, real estate for example, it’s fast becoming a fact that 90% to even 95% of the business is generated by only 5% to 10% of salespeople.
A few weeks ago I presented a seminar to a major market station. During question time they asked how they could possibly handle direct/retail sales in a city of this size? The traffic makes getting around town impossible. There was general murmur of acknowledgement and agreement throughout the room and to say the least, I was absolutely astonished. Clearly there was little initiative and certainly no planning whatsoever, otherwise each member of the sales team would have realized they should be planning to set all of their (suburb) appointments on Tuesdays, then on Thursdays, they’d plan to be in (another suburb). How difficult can that be? But the simplicity of that simple pre-planning process seemed to escape what is otherwise a very accomplished sales team.
Territorial sales are a planning strategy in just about every sales organization you care to name, yet there was little initiative among this very seasoned radio sales team to overcome the traffic. Now look at the four points listed above and see if you don’t agree that every one of those points apply in this case.
Avoiding the pitfalls of falling victim to what I believe is rapidly transforming the 80/20 Rule to the 90/10 Rule, take a serious look at those same four points and consider adjusting your professional standards and behavior to meet and address those obstacles to top sales performance and which represent barriers to a more rewarding income.
If you’d also like a copy of the “50 Skills and Attributes” you need to incorporate into your professional daily routine to take you to the next level of sales performance, simply contact me at the email address detailed at the bottom of this column and I’ll be pleased to email a copy to you.
Selling In A Soft Or Down Market
The economy is in reasonable shape, unemployment is relatively low in most states and interest rates are at historical lows … all strong indicators that we should be experiencing boom times in advertising sales and revenues. There has never been an economic environment in which we now find ourselves, where we’re experiencing such solid economic indicators which means consumer confidence, spending and investment should be equally strong. Consumer confidence and spending however, is nearing such a low that you’d think we’re in recession – just look at the housing market!
We have a war, political discontent in a very polarized political landscape, a looming election that reflects political unrest, unparalleled natural disasters in the past 12 months resulting in enormous uncertainty on “Main Street America”.
Traditionally, one of the very first budget line item expenses businesses cut in the current environment is advertising. If ever there’s a time when advertising sales people should be selling the virtues and benefits of advertisers NOT discontinuing or diminishing their advertising budgets, it’s now!
Here’s the indisputable reason:
All businesses suffer in an economic downturn. However, businesses who continue to advertise through a soft market enjoy far healthier and much more vigorous sales than those that discontinue their marketing and advertising strategies. As we climb out of the economic doom (which we will), those businesses who’ve continued to aggressively advertise enjoy spectacular sales growth against their competitors who’ve discontinued their marketing and advertising. Take a look at the sales graph on this page, it’s real and factual.
If you'd like a copy of a powerful graph demonstrating the benefits of continuiong marketing through a recession, email me via our website: http://www.strategicmediasales.com/Contact_Us.htm
